A general home inspection is a good first look at a house, but it is a broad one. The inspector checks the roof, the foundation, the plumbing, the furnace and the electrical in a few hours, and on the electrical side they mostly report what they can see: the panel with its cover off, a sample of receptacles, the visible wiring in the basement and attic.
When the report flags something electrical, it usually stops at “recommend further evaluation.” That is the honest answer — an inspector is not an electrician — but it leaves a buyer with a line item and no price. The questions below are the ones that turn that line into a number, and most of them can be answered during the inspection window.
How old is the panel, and what brand is it?
The panel is the first thing worth knowing about, because it is the part of the system that decides whether the rest is protected.
Look at the label inside the panel door, or ask the inspector for a photo of it. A few things matter:
- The brand. Some panels that were common decades ago have a well-documented history of breakers that fail to trip under overload. Federal Pacific panels with Stab-Lok breakers and Zinsco panels are the two most often named. Many insurers ask about them by name, and some won’t write a policy until they are replaced.
- The age. A panel that has been in service for forty years or more has breakers, bus bars and connections that are all that old too. Age alone is not a defect, but it is worth a closer look.
- Fuses instead of breakers. A fuse box still works the way it was designed to, but it usually means a small service, and it is a common reason an insurer or lender asks questions.
- Signs of trouble. Rust, scorching, a warm smell, or breakers that have been “doubled up” with two wires under one screw.
We wrote a longer piece on the signs that a panel needs replacing. If the house has one of the panels above, plan on a panel replacement as part of the purchase, not as a someday project.
How big is the electrical service?
The service size — the number on the main breaker, in amps — is how much power the house can draw at once. Older houses were often built with 60 or 100 amp services, sized for a life with far fewer electrical loads than most households have now.
That matters most for what you plan to add. An EV charger, a heat pump, an electric range, a hot tub or a finished basement can each be a large new load, and a small service may not have room for them. Finding that out after closing turns a weekend install into a service upgrade with a utility appointment in the middle of it.
The question to ask is not just “how many amps,” but “how many amps, and what will I add in the next five years?” Our post on when 100 amps is not enough walks through how that math works.
What kind of wiring is in the walls?
The type of wiring tells you more about the house than almost anything else in the report.
- Knob-and-tube. Separate conductors on ceramic knobs, common in houses built before the 1940s. It was a sound system for its time, but it has no ground, its insulation becomes brittle with age, and it was never meant to be buried in insulation. Many insurers will not cover a house with it live.
- Older cloth-sheathed cable. The generation that followed. Often ungrounded, and the sheathing can crumble where it has been handled or heated.
- Aluminum branch wiring. Used in some houses built in the late 1960s and 1970s. The issue is at the connections, which can loosen and overheat over time; it can be made safe with the right connectors rather than replaced outright, but it needs to be addressed.
- Modern grounded cable. What you hope to see, at least in the parts of the house that have been updated.
Most older houses are a mix — original wiring in some rooms, newer circuits where a kitchen or bath was remodeled. The inspector will usually see the wiring in an unfinished basement or attic, but not inside the walls, so the question to ask is how much of the original wiring is still live.
If the answer is “some knob-and-tube,” that is a project with a known shape. Our post on rewiring an older home without tearing walls apart explains how it is done in a finished house, and what knob-and-tube replacement involves.
Are the receptacles grounded?
Two-prong receptacles are the visible sign of an ungrounded circuit. So, less obviously, are three-prong receptacles that were installed on circuits with no ground behind them — a common shortcut that looks fine and tests wrong.
A plug-in tester will show which is which, and many inspectors check a sample. An ungrounded circuit is not necessarily dangerous on its own, but it leaves no path for a fault, it limits what you can safely plug in, and it is often a clue that the wiring behind it is original.
There are code-approved ways to protect ungrounded circuits short of rewiring them, such as GFCI protection, and an electrician can tell you which circuits are fine with that and which ones should be replaced.
Is there GFCI and AFCI protection where it belongs?
Current code requires GFCI protection — the receptacles with the test and reset buttons, or breakers that do the same job — in kitchens, bathrooms, laundry areas, garages, outdoors and unfinished basements. It also requires AFCI protection, which guards against the arcing faults that start electrical fires, on most living-space circuits.
An older house is not required to meet today’s code everywhere. But the absence of GFCI protection near water is one of the cheapest and most worthwhile things to fix, and it is reasonable to ask for it before closing.
Was the work done with permits?
Older houses have often been worked on by several owners. Some of that work was done by electricians with permits; some was done by whoever owned the house at the time.
Signs of unpermitted work are often easy to spot once you know to look:
- Wiring run along the surface of a wall or ceiling, or stapled loosely across joists.
- Extension cords or power strips used as permanent wiring.
- Junction boxes with no covers, or splices with no box at all.
- A finished basement or addition with no permit on record.
You can ask the seller for permit history, and the local building department can usually tell you what has been permitted at an address. Unpermitted work is not automatically bad work, but it is unverified, and it is easier to have it looked at while you still have the option to negotiate.
What do the lights and outlets do?
Some problems only show up when the house is in use. During a walkthrough, it is worth paying attention to:
- Lights that dim or flicker when a large appliance starts.
- Receptacles or switch plates that are warm to the touch.
- Outlets that don’t hold a plug firmly, or that don’t work at all.
- Breakers the seller mentions “trip sometimes.”
- A burning or hot plastic smell anywhere near the panel or a receptacle.
Any of these is worth a closer look. Most turn out to be a single loose connection or an overloaded circuit, which are straightforward repairs. The point is to find them before they are yours.
What will the insurer ask?
It is worth calling an insurance agent early in the process, before the inspection contingency runs out. Insurers often ask about the age of the panel, the presence of knob-and-tube or aluminum wiring, and whether the house has a fuse box. Some will quote a policy with a condition attached — replace the panel within a set period, for example — and some will decline outright until the work is done.
That answer can change your plan. A condition from the insurer is a deadline, and it is better to know it while you can still negotiate the price or ask for a credit.
When to bring in an electrician
A licensed electrician’s evaluation is worth scheduling during the inspection window whenever the general inspection flags any of the following:
- A panel brand with a known history, a fuse box, or a panel showing heat or corrosion.
- Knob-and-tube, cloth-sheathed or aluminum branch wiring.
- A service of 100 amps or less, if you plan to add major loads.
- Signs of amateur or unpermitted work.
An electrician can open the panel, test circuits, check grounding and give you a written scope with a price. That scope is what you take back to the seller: as a repair request, a credit at closing, or simply a clear plan for the first year in the house.
The short version
An older house’s electrical comes down to a handful of questions: what panel it has, how big the service is, what wiring is in the walls, whether the circuits are grounded and protected, and who did the work. The general inspection points at most of them; an electrician’s evaluation puts a price on them.
Ask them before you close, and the electrical becomes a line in the budget rather than a surprise in the first winter. If you’re under contract on an older house, we can walk through it with you and give you a written scope to take back to the negotiation.
